Posted: September 14, 2007

Nanotechnology battery-propelled motorcycle crash

(Nanowerk News) It's Slow News Friday time! A while back we brought you a story about how a nanotechnology battery propels motorcycle from 0 to 60 mph in under 1.5 seconds. Well, it's not named KillaCycle for nothing. This week, the inventor of the KillaCycle almost killed himself during a demonstration at the Wired NextFest conference.
Using A123 Systems lithium-ion batteries, the KillaCycle can go zero to 60 miles-per-hour in a mind numbing 0.97 seconds and has a top speed of 158 mph.
Bill Dube, a government scientist during the day and electric bike builder at night, did a “burn out” in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center, but accidentally accelerated too much and crashed into a Minivan. Watch the insane acceleration in a YouTube video:
Luckily, Bill is ok. As he writes in his blog:
First off, I’m just a bit scraped up. Emabarrassed of course. I had not intended the bike to move in the soapy water, just spin the tire.
Got it slowed down to about 20 mph. Front wheel is bent, as are front forks. Cowling is not nearly as pretty as it was. Battery box took a hit from the front wheel. Almost certainly, some cells were shorted. No smoke. No fire. Ultra safe cells. Had these been anything but A123 Systems Nano-phosphate cells, shorts would have caused a serious fire.
No major damage. We will have is fixed in short order.
Yes, I am an idiot. :-/